Finding Birds in Guilford County: Fisher Park

Fisher Park is a neighborhood park located off Elm Street just north of the Greensboro central business district. It is known to local birders as one of the best spots in the county for migrating spring warblers. Fisher Park is administered by the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department but has no facilities and is not staffed. For information about this and other neighborhood parks, call 373-2574.
          Birders approaching from Wendover Avenue should go south on Elm Street to Fisher Park Circle, which borders the park on the northern, western, and southern sides; the eastern border is formed by Elm Street. If driving north from the downtown area, watch on the left for the beautiful old First Presbyterian Church. Continue past the church to the next left, which is Fisher Park Circle. There is no parking on Elm Street. However, after turning left, visitors will find limited parking in pull-offs around the park.
          Continuing to the next intersection, one may turn left again (Carolina and Parkway intersect with Fisher Park Circle here). There is considerably more parking along this section of the park than on Fisher Park Circle. A block further south the circle turns left again at the intersection with Florence, where Temple Emanuel is on one corner and First Presbyterian is on the other across from the park. After passing through what appears to be the church parking lot, the visitor reaches Elm Street again and can turn left to go back up to the other end of Fisher Park Circle. The round trip is only a little over half a mile in length.
          Enter the park by foot at any of the numerous points along the periphery. Although any season is good, spring is a wonderful time to stroll the many old paths through mature azaleas, around perennial flower beds, and across venerable stone foot bridges that cross a little stream. One may gaze up through an understory of flowering dogwood and redbud trees to mature oaks, hickories, and other hardwoods. There are a few picnic tables at the north end of the park, but no playground equipment, although visitors with children will find a nice playground on the east side of Elm nestled among the trees.
          Fisher Park is a pretty, quiet, historic, residential area park. Most of the common resident species of the area have been found here. The park is nicely landscaped but quite old, so trees are mature, and there is good understory structure. This provides excellent foraging habitat for a variety of migrating warblers. Also occasionally seen in the park are Red-headed and Pileated Woodpeckers.
          The main hazard here in April and early May is the possibility of a severe case of "warbler neck" that may result from watching most of the vireo and warbler species that may be seen in the county. This also is a good place to find all of the woodpeckers possible in the county, including Red-headed, Red-bellied, Downy, Hairy, and Pileated Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers, and in winter, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. Thrushes like this park too, including Swainson’s in migration, Hermit in winter, and Wood Thrushes in summer. Almost all of the common suburban birds also may be found here and in the surrounding residential lawns.